


Acts of Inspiration

by Chocolate_Quetzalcoatl



Category: One Piece
Genre: Chaotic Good!Smoker, Conqueror’s Haki, Gen, Gol D. Roger is inspiring, Gol D. Roger’s execution, How Do I Tag, Logue Town, Smoker respects Gol D. Roger, Time Loop, Time Travel, Time traveling Smoker, what the Marines don’t know won’t hurt them
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-13
Updated: 2019-08-13
Packaged: 2020-08-20 19:23:30
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,142
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20233087
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Chocolate_Quetzalcoatl/pseuds/Chocolate_Quetzalcoatl
Summary: The Marines have one chance to travel to the past. One trip, for only ten minutes. Even if it’s only a pipe dream, they hope to stop the start of the Great Pirate Era. As the only Marine who was in the crowd at Roger’s execution, Rear-admiral Smoker is picked for the job.





	Acts of Inspiration

Smoker steps into the year 800 and takes a deep breath. Logue Town looks the same as ever, largely unchanged in the years between the past he’s just entered and the present he’ll soon return to. The smell of the saltwater suffusing the air is the same as well, somehow so unexplainably different to the Grand Line he’s been on for nearly two and a half years that he stumbles with shock. 

That would be incredibly embarrassing if anyone had seen it, honestly it was even without an audience. 

Normally he would’ve been hard pressed to find a part of the city without anyone in it, and a multitude of civilians would’ve likely witnessed his moment of less than gracefulness. But not today. Today, almost every single person in the entire city, resident and visitor alike, is gathered in the main square to watch the execution of the Pirate King.

This is a day unlike any other, and Smoker still remembers, with unnerving clarity, watching Gold —_Gol D._— Roger inspire an entire generation to become pirates the likes of which the Marines could never have predicted. 

But Roger couldn’t have done it alone. And _that_ was why they sent him twenty-four years into the past. To find, and either kill, or arrest, the one who started it all. The crazy sod who had enough balls to ask Roger where his treasure was. 

That was why Smoker in specific had been selected for this job; there had been lots of Marines on duty at the Pirate Kings execution, but they had regarded the crowd as a whole. Smoker was the only Marine who had been in the crowd, he has the best chance at identifying the speaker, and, if he is fast enough, killing him before he can get a word out. 

_50,000 people in that square, nearly two-thirds had gone on to become pirates, and only one out of all 50,000, had become a marine._

With his intimate familiarity with the streets, it takes only a matter of minutes for Smoker to arrive at the town square. Dressed as he is in civilian clothes just for this, he slips into the crowd with ease, and watches with them as the Pirate King is escorted to the execution dais. 

As a child he was only aware of the pride the Pirate King seemed to radiate with every step, and his own awe at seeing a true legend before him. Now he notes the feel of Roger’s incredible will filling the very air around them, the way it seems less like he is being escorted against his will, and more like he is the leader of the procession, exactly where he wants to be. Knowing now about seastone he notes the wooden cuffs on Roger’s hands, the way nothing about him says prisoner, and it is just as intoxicating to him as an adult as it was as a child. 

As the path the Pirate King just walked closes, Smoker struggles towards his place. As a child he watched —_is watching_, a flash of white hair out the corner of his eye and he remembers his child self is _here_— this from inside the mess of the crowd, and he knows he heard the question from somewhere behind him. 

As Roger sits, his every action still so proudly irreverent, Smoker looks around. Examining the faces of everyone he can, he looks for that spark of defiance, of curiosity, that will cause someone to call out. 

He can’t find it. 

This mission does not have a penalty for failure. He is looking for one person in fifty-thousand, the higher ups knew that this was most likely going to futile before they sent him on it, but it had been deemed worth it for the small chance they might stop the Great Pirate Era from ever happening at all. That does not stop his passion from driving him to complete it no matter what.

From somewhere, the announcer tells everyone what it going to happen, and all attention is on Roger. Smoker still can’t see who is going to yell, every single face starring transfixed at Roger, but all with the same fearful, _quiet_, awe.

There’s a glint of light as the executioners assume the ready stance, and his attention is drawn back to the dias. The tension in the air is palpable, infecting all, and it feel like his nerves are on fire because he is certain someone was supposed to have yelled by now. 

Smoker’s eyes firm as a flush of determination washes through his body and curls in his chest with his love for the sea, twisting together into thoughts the Marines would _not_ approve of. ‘_Someone is_ going _to ask him.’_

“Oi! Pirate King!” He screams out over the crowd, ignoring the exacutioners as they try to shut him up. “What did you do with your treasure? It’s somewhere on the Grand Line, isn’t it? You have it don’t you? The greatest treasure in the world! Your special treasure! One Piece!”

The Pirate King breaks into loud, raucous laughter, and a bit more of his Haki spills into the air. From across the square Roger meets his eyes for the second time in Smoker’s life, a wide, D-shaped grin on his face, and Smoker knows without a doubt that he will remember this day in perfect clarity as well. 

“My treasure?” Roger’s gaze leave his, the Pirate King looking back out across the crowd as he talks, and Smoker knows that Roger has found the eyes of his younger self. 

“If you want it, I’ll let you have it! Look for it!” The smile Roger is wearing now is the one he will take to his grave. “I left all of it at that place!”

Trying to late to stop the fire they can see starting with Roger’s words, the executioners plunge their blades into Roger’s heart. The roar of the crowd is deafening, and a moment later Smoker finds himself back on a Marine base, breathing in the air of the Grand Line. 

“Rear Admiral Smoker! Mission report!” Barks the Vice Admiral who was placed in charge of the attempt as he advances towards Smoker, passing the remains of the time machine, burnt out beyond any salvageability from the little trip to the past. 

Smoker meets the other’s eyes. “Failure.” He states, letting as little escape into the word as possible. 

The Vice Admiral sighs. “A shame, even if it was what we expected. Either way, you’re dismissed, Rear Admiral. You may go back to your regular duties.”

Smoker salutes somewhat numbly and heads back to his ship, the eyes of the Pirate King burning in his mind. 

_50,000 people in that square, and 50,000 people, even if they didn’t act on it, inspired to become pirates._

**Author's Note:**

> I know I’m not getting any cookies for originality in my twist, but some variation of this idea has been playing around in my head since I first watched episode 48.  
Technically(?) my first fic (on that note, Mwahaha KiaraCat! I completed one!), so leave me a comment of any kind and I will love you forever. <3


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